11 years later....

How many times have you been at work, looked around, and wondered, "what am I doing here? Is this really what I was hoping to do on a daily basis in my adult years? How did I end up in this rut to begin with?" If you're like me, then those thoughts occur every time you see someone get promoted, or see some hot shot coming in fresh from the learning gates. You see, there really are pegs out there in the real world, and like it or not, we are all destined to be latched to one. The question is, then, how high or low on the totem pole will we be attached to.

That, in an elongated nutshell, is what has prompted me to reevaluate my academic goals at this watershed age in a person's life. I feel middle age begins at age 35, so given that, I've set out to acquire a baccalaureate degree before I hit that esteemed age. For those of you scoring at him, that would be before the fall of 2013. I will be using this web page to chronicle my progression, not so much for self-fulfillment, but to display for others who may want to wander down the same track what a real-life process looks like. Those guides you pick up at the store can only tell so much.

I'd like to provide a synopsis of my academic background heretofore for context. I was an exceptional student all the way up to my 9th grade year in high school, consistently scoring high on aptitude tests, and earning spots in "aim high" or honors courses. Then I became distracted by sports, mainly watching them instead of participating in them. A level of apathy towards education began to set in - highlighted by my purposely withdrawing from all-honors courses my first year in high school, due to feeling I was somehow being burdened with the more rigid classes. Suffice it to say, my high school career ended a semester late, with my diploma displaying a banner from a night high school. The date on it was December 11, 1997.

I actually did enroll in two college courses that first semester of Spring 1998, but due to working full time at a Diamond Shamrock, along with my continual lackadaisical attitude towards school, I was withdrawn from one of the classes, and dropped the other one myself. That made me 0 for 2. Fast forward 4 years to the summer of 2002, and again I signed up for two classes at the community college. Just like the previous run, I was battling having to deal with a 40 hr/week job, and having to get around the city on a bus to meet my class times. I dropped my English class after only 2 days, and my non-credit Algebra class was going well until a month into it, the professor's words completely dazed me. I literally walked out of the class at that point. I did manage to get in one test, the only one so far. Make that 0 for 4 in my studies. So there you have it, my complete post-high school record in all it's stupendous futility.

So you're asking yourself, given my track record, how will I overcome the previous entanglements and lethargy this time around? Well, I think we can all agree that decreasing workload time is a start. I'll be putting in 25 hours a week maximum to employment. And lastly, the name of this blog perfectly underlines the urgency of my mission. I mean once you're on the wrong side of 30, you really don't have any more good chances to resume getting that college degree. So follow along with me via this web page, and you can see real world steps in getting through university as a non-traditional student. I'll be briefing ya'll throughout.